


Another Chance: Adaptation

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: Another Chance (Pern/DCU fusion) [5]
Category: DCU - Comicverse, Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Beginnings, Minor Character Death, Multi, Telepathic Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-26
Updated: 2012-11-26
Packaged: 2017-11-19 15:33:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/574848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The colony moves closer to a truly Pernese solution, but the worm in the apple shows itself as a venomous snake, striking at the heart of the colony.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Chance: Adaptation

"The Admiral was down in the lab again, asking if we had any progress. Like it wasn't going to be the same answer it's been every day since the embryos made it past the zygote stage," Sorka complained as she settled down next to Sean from getting herself a drink. Sorka and Sean's fairs were perched everywhere there was space, while Trouble and Chakano had found their favorite places on the floor to land. "Nobody, not even Kitti, can make any gestation period shorter than it is naturally. You'd think that would be obvious."

"Obvious to any but a space-crazy Admiral," came a snorted reply from her mate, as he drew her tighter to his side.

Dick snorted a quiet laugh, shaking his head. "Hasn't his wife had a couple of babies by now?"

"Yes, which is why I thought he'd know it wasn't possible," Sorka replied, shaking her head. "They're both with Ma while Ju works."

"How many of the embryos made it to viable levels, Sean?" Dick asked, cocking his head from his spot next to Roy.

"Twenty-four. We thought it was just going to be twenty-two, there for a couple of days, but the two that were rocky made it after all."

"That's the first batch," Roy said. "We're to start more immediately of course. Can't have all our eggs in one basket," he added, with a laugh at his pun.

Dick reached down, grabbed a pillow -- Chakano rolled off of it with a whirring 'cheeeeeeep!' of complaint -- and whacked his mate over the head with it, while Sorka flipped another at his head. "I thought those were my stock in trade, Roy."

Sean actually smiled at them for lightening it up a little. They were all stressed, strung out from trying to put thirty hours into a day that only had twenty five or so. Dick smiled back at him, then glared at the chirping of the comm. "What _now_? We just got off shift," he complained.

"Yeah... We just got off... shift," Roy said, playfully, trying to coax Dick closer, as Sorka groaned at the two of them. 

Sean was the one to reach out and gather the comm to answer it. "Yes?"

It was an announcement to Landing as a whole that tomorrow there would be no standard shift work except for truly necessary assignments. Two crews of volunteers were needed to fly the Falls over land, but even that should be short assignments, given that it was mostly to hit over the sea. For the rest of the population, tomorrow was to be a true Rest Day, with a feast put on by Pierre de Courci and his staff, and entertainment and dancing in the evening.

Sean looked at the rest of his household and cocked an eyebrow as he shut the comm. "Seems none of us are working tomorrow, save truly essential functions, but we're to go to a fair of sorts... they do need volunteers to fly Fall, but only over land."

"You'll have to check by the labs, Sorka," Roy said. "Dick... we flying?"

"I'll call Drake and ask him if he needs us. I'd rather have the day off, but I won't leave him in the lurch, either."

"Same here, but I also don't want to get roped into helping with the bloody thing!" Roy told Dick, knowing how often their household got rooked into work.

All of them laughed at that, and even the firelizards joined in, whistling, and the comm. in Sean's hand went off again. He lifted it to his ear, then shook his head. "Roy, it's for you."

"Roy?" Dinah's voice asked once it was in his hand.

"Yeah, Di?" He was glad to hear her voice; their projects had kept the small family apart for too long. "Did the test go well?"

"...It worked. It worked like a charm!" her voice rippled with delight as she spoke to him. "Governor Boll was thrilled. Then she called back just a little bit ago, and asked if we had anything ready to harvest. The plants are a little young, but if we're careful not to pull but the oldest ones, those are good..."

Roy let a silent groan show on his face, then nodded. "We'll be there as soon as we can then, Di. Those tubers always were pretty tasty roasted."

Sean let a small smile touch his lips, before he nuzzled into Sorka's hair. "I'm no flyer, and it's too far a Fall for me to work ground crew."

"Thank you, Roy," Dinah said, happiness in her voice at the thought of seeing them soon. 

"Yeah, yeah, rub it in," Dick sighed as he dragged himself to his feet. "Too far to make the ride, we'll have to get Vic to ride down with us, bring the sled back."

"You have a sled there, Di?" Roy asked. 

"No, but Slade's going to come pick me up in the morning. He had to head down to the mines earlier to make sure everything was going ahead for more shutters."

Dick cocked his head to the side, watching Roy.

Roy shook his head, but mimed Slade by covering one eye. "Okay Di, we'll get Vic to bring us down, and you can let him take anything you already have back." He knew she'd have berries from her sheds, at the very least.

"Alright, Roy... see you soon." She hung up her end.

****

Forty-Three days after First Fall

"Sorka..." Sean looked at her with solemn features. None of them were in great shape, having drunk and danced the night before in a much needed release. "Just had a call. The Jepsons..."

Roy looked up from the table he'd been laying his head on. "What about them?" he asked, pouring himself more klah.

Dick and Sorka both looked up, but she was the first to answer. "They went to fly, didn't they?"

"Sled accident?" Dick asked, sitting up. "How bad?"

"Lost one sled, might be able to salvage the other." Sean wasn't being callous; they needed those sleds badly, and it made it an easier prelude to what he had to say. "Lost four. Both the twins, Becky Nielson, and Bart Nilwan."

Roy winced, and looked over at Dick in sympathy; Bart was one of the mechs. Dick closed his eyes. "Becky'd just come back... She was riding with -- how in hell... Oh, those _damn_ idiots. Bet you anything, with such a quick part of the Fall to fly, they decided to screw around, and they never did have enough sense to check their sensors."

Sean nodded. "That was the general thought at Admin," he told them. "Hell of a start of the day."

Sorka sighed, "Sure is."

****

Even the news that Dick brought home that night, that Tarvi Andiyar had realized that they could raid the old shuttles -- not the admiral's gig, but the shuttles -- for enough parts to rebuild the one sled, didn't help much to lift the spirits of the four younger people, or for Slade and Dinah back on the stakes. The lost lives had been too big a price to pay for that realization. The news that the shutters were functional had brought cheer the night before at the party, but getting them to full mass production was going to take time. Then, the fact that more accidents followed only kept the pall hanging over them over the next days.

Sean was on the verge of blowing up completely, with everyone's questions for a progress update on the eggs. Roy and Sorka both tried to bolster the volatile man along, but it was hard to be patient and wait... and then just as Sean got off the line again, he heard Bay yelling. Quiet Bay, who never yelled, practically screaming for Pol and Kwan.

The three went for the lab Bay was yelling from, responding to the urgency with instinctive haste. They drew to a stop outside the chromosome lab, looking inside... and Sorka turned into Sean's shoulder. Roy looked past them both, and froze as he saw Kitti's body lying on the floor. Bay'd stopped yelling, and Kitti's granddaughter Wind Blossom's sobs echoed out the door.

"Oh no..." Roy had to swallow hard, this close to death again for the first time in a very long time, not since the war. He looked at Sean with despairing eyes, and Sean decisively drew Sorka away, his bearing indicating that Roy was to follow them. With Kitti dead, all their hopes rested in the zygotes already formed, because Wind Blossom's training was still unfinished, and none of the other senior xenobiologists had learned all Kitti could teach.

Roy was more than willing to let Sean lead, wanting to get away from that place of death. He stepped out of the way of the gurney and the arriving medical techs carefully, then followed Sean and Sorka out.

Sean took them all the way home, where he pulled a flask of quikal out, and poured them each a drink. "One thing we've got to keep clear," he said in a low voice. "Her work lives on, and we'll go on as we've planned."

Roy nodded to that, and downed his bitter drink, needing it to push down the immediacy of what had happened.

"We have to," Sorka agreed once she could speak from the quickal's burn.

****

Dick's comm went off during their lunch the next day, asking him if Sallah Telgar-Andiyar had been held over working on sleds that day by Mairi Hanrahan. He told her no, not having seen the woman that morning, as he had been salvaging parts off the shuttles.

"No, I didn't see her at all, Mairi, I thought maybe Cara wasn't feeling well. Thought it was weird that she hadn't called in, but... why?"

"No...she doesn't usually miss the lunch feeding, is why I thought to call you," Mairi said. "I've got Cara in hand... maybe something came up with her husband."

"Tarvi was supposed to be down with Slade today, I can comm over there," Dick volunteered.

"It's no bother, Dick," Mairi assured him. "She'll turn up by night, I'm sure," she soothed.

Dick eyed the comm as if it was going to bite him, but agreed with Mairi for the moment, long enough to get her to hang up -- then immediately started trying to get Slade on the line.

"Wilson here," Slade said over the refinery noises. 

"Slade, is Tarvi alright?" By this point, the other three were giving him the look of 'blast it, talk already.'

Slade looked across the refinery at the man as he exhorted more work from the machines by adding his own strong, sinewy muscle to the progress. "He's fine, Dick; why?"

"Don't worry him yet. But Mairi Hanrahan called to ask if Sallah was working late, because she didn't show up to feed Cara. I haven't seen her, and she should have been working right next to me most of the day."

Slade frowned. "Dick, that woman is clock-reliable. Even if she got delegated elsewhere, either Mairi or you would have been told."

"I know. Fulmar would at least. I'll go check with Admin... but I don't have a good feeling about this." He paused, then added something few people on Landing knew, but he'd gotten pulled in to service some of her parts. "The launch was today, Slade. To go up to the _Yoko_." The short-form of the colony ship's name had always come to him easiest, and this trip, meant as it was to check on the probes and the probe garage, then re-calibrate them to examine the eccentric, had been kept fairly well under wraps.

"I'm going to get Tarvi, head in with him," Slade said. "You can reach me by comm if it turns out they had to sub Sallah in at last minute... but I still think we'd have heard by now from Admin if that was the case."

"See you when you get in." Dick hung up, and looked at his lover and their best friends. "Any questions?"

Sean was frowning, while Sorka started packing up their lunch. "Ma's going to need me," she said. If there was another little one that didn't have a mother for the day, maybe longer than that... Mairi had a nearly-newborn on her hip already, she didn't need to be having to deal with two full-time. "Sean?"

"I'll handle our load at the labs," he told her. "Go help Mairi, love."

Roy took a deep breath. "Bad feeling..." he murmured uneasily. 

"You and me both, 'mano. Alright. Sallah dropped Cara at Mairi's, but she never got to the shuttle field. It's not that far between those two places. I'm for Admin first, but..."

"I can back track that route on my way to ma's, Dick," Sorka told him. "You go on to Admin."

"Alright." He whistled Chakano to his shoulder and took off out of the house at a dead run for Admin. Landing's habit of not locking anything stood him in good stead right that moment, as it let him get to Ezra Keroon in the voice-activated interface booth quickly. "Sir?"

"Yes, son?" Ezra asked him, pausing in rerunning his statistics concerning how long Fall would be capable.

"Did something happen with Kenjo or Zi? Because Sallah Telgar-Andiyar never made it to work her shift with us, but her daughter's with Mairi and she's not out with Tarvi and Slade, either."

Ezra frowned as he heard that. "The shuttle went up on time," the man said in a slow, considering voice. "Haven't had a bit of reason to think anything might have been wrong, but..." He got up to go walk down toward the field, to look around.

Dick went with him, and just as they reached the doors, the comm unit in Dick's hand went off.

"Dick, I -- I need medical, now, here just off the landing field. It's Kenjo and Ongola, they're both hurt... no. Not just hurt. I think Kenjo's dead, and Zi..." his best girl friend's voice was shaking more than a little, and he sucked a breath of his own, losing some of her words in his need to get the information to Ezra now. 

"Ezra, call a med team to the field... Sorka found both Kenjo and Ongola," Dick relayed. "Sorka, need you to stay calm, tell me what you can about Ongola, then."

"It's his skull, Dick. I think so anyway. It's an odd angle, but he's breathing." She drew in a very deep breath to hold herself together. 

Ezra spun back to the comm board, and bare moments later he spoke to Dick. "They're on their way there. I'm alerting the Admiral and the governor to go to the med center. Then I'll contact Tarvi Andiyar."

"Then just sit tight. I'll be there soon, Sorka." He shut the comm off. "You'll have to reach the comm in Slade's sled. They're already on their way because she didn't turn up. Sir, might not be any of my business, but Sallah'd never do this... so who's flying the gig? Liftoff isn't _that_ easy, from everything I've ever heard."

Ezra considered. "The admiral didn't seem too keen on a few people getting onboard as Kenjo's copilot --- and no one's seen Bitra, even though Kimmer said she's supposed to be back."

"She could do this. What I can't track is why. But I've got to get to Sorka." There was no sense in standing here guessing about things when his best girl friend needed someone with her. Sorka was too young and too Earth-born to really have seen any of the war -- the Nathi had never gotten that far into the FSP systems -- and the Pernese colonists had astoundingly little internecine violence. Sorka wasn't familiar with how awful humans could be to each other, and he had heard in her voice just how badly she was taking it. 

"Go on, son." Ezra got on the horn with Paul and then Emily, to let them know the worm in the apple had just turned into a full-fledged snake. But as hard as that call was, it was the one to inform a man his wife was possibly a hostage that worried him more.

****

The rest of that afternoon had been damn near hell. Slade had been with Tarvi and the colony leaders in the Admin building for hours. Even after he'd come back to the house, to the four very worried young people who looked to him, he wasn't speaking of anything he'd heard. Not even when Dinah made it back to the house from the stake she'd been helping to set up farming plots, did he talk about it. He'd just wrapped her in his arms the moment she walked in the door and held on as tight as she could stand it, face buried against her hair, and said five quiet words -- quiet, but so fierce. "I love you, Dinah Lance."

She swallowed against the panic that flared deep in her chest from his ferocity, and Hope had to push into Major all the more strongly from the fear rising in the woman. "I love you, Slade Wilson... No matter the cost," she whispered, tears coming from the way he held her, the way his voice sounded.

Dick watched from his spot in the corner of the couch with his eyes blown wide. Those words weren't said between the elder pair often, letting it be seen more than heard. What had Slade learned in that room with them, that he wouldn't share, but clung so tightly to Dinah for?

Roy reached out, not liking this in the least, scared beyond words at Slade having been that reduced in his ability to communicate. Slade, who'd taken to two dirty urchins like him and Dick, and held them strong through a war, who had gotten everything lined up for this chance at a new start, all while trying to recover from the loss of a wife, two sons, and his teacher-and-best friend? Whatever had happened was devastating on a level Roy didn't want to think about. Dick pushed into Roy's arms, and they both felt Sorka and Sean move closer, just as worried. None of them had been willing to press before Dinah got there... but now, maybe she could coax him into speaking.

Though none of them knew what had happened in the Admin building but Slade, word had traveled through the rest of Landing about other events. Sorka had been right, Kenjo was dead before she found them. Zi Ongola would pull through with good care, which he was receiving. Avril Bitra's sled had been found near the shuttle field. And no-one had seen Sallah since early that morning. The pieces didn't look pretty, no matter how they reshuffled them. 

"Slade...Slade...It's just family in here now," Dinah began, softly. She gave a kindly eye to Sean and Sorka, having accepted them as Roy's and Dick's preferred friends. She liked Vic, as well, but their paths didn't often cross. "We're all scared. We want to know what happened. Can you tell us?" She nestled down into his arms, making herself small enough to fit in his lap so he could hold onto her and still talk to them if he would.

Slade pressed his jaw against her hair for long moments, then took a harsh breath. "Someone should have done something about finding Bitra months ago, but it's not as though it matters now. Sallah," his words caught for a moment, "must have seen her heading for the shuttle and followed her. Once that bitch was off the _Yokohama_ in the gig, Sallah commed down. She got the probes sent off that Keroon wanted, programmed to relay down through AIVAS, and re-set the telescope as well. Trying to keep Tarvi quiet so she could work..."

He shook his head hard, and took another slow breath. "I could hear her getting dizzy with the blood loss, but she just kept working. Bitra'd plotted a course into the _Mariposa_ that would have let her get near one of the shipping lanes and set off a beacon, but there was a dud guidance chip in the panel, bless Ongola's good sense."

Dinah shook her head in denial of that. She had only ever heard good about Sallah and thought she was a fine woman from their few encounters. "Oh, Slade. And Tarvi _there_..."

Roy moved fully into Dick's space, pulling him into a fierce hold. To lose your mate, your chosen partner... it made Roy as fierce as Slade holding Dinah where Dick was concerned.

"She was my pilot down," Sorka breathed, letting Sean hold her tight as she tried to hold back her grief. On their preferred perch, Duke crooned worriedly. .

"Ours too," Dick whispered, but Slade wasn't done. 

"Once she'd done everything she could, they let Tarvi have the comm... God, Dinah. He pushed us out, but I could hear him... I couldn't hear her, but him -- Benden had to pull him away from the link, after we knew she wasn't going to answer him again."

Dinah had tears coming down her cheeks at the feel of the loss that Tarvi would be going through, a loss she and Slade had known too intimately. She pressed into him, one hand tangling up into his hair, her eyes closing. "My love... oh, my love," she whispered. 

Sorka was curled tight in Sean's arms, holding onto him fiercely, wishing yet again to have his child, to have something of him if she lost him. Not far away, Dick shifted to get as tight a grip on Roy as his lover had wrapped around him, holding on hard.

Slade reached up to wipe the tears from her eyes, holding her with his other arm fiercely. "We managed to get Tarvi to go to their children, and Boll went with him. I did hear that the _Mariposa_ plunged straight into the eccentric planet, but not much else."

"Good." Savage ferocity snapped out of Dinah's eyes to know the gig had taken that bitch to a fiery death, and Slade's expression matched hers. Hope's head came up from where her neck was twined with Major's, a low sharp noise coming from the queen's mouth

Sean looked down at his own partner, his Sorka, and took a deep breath. "Sallah was a braver woman than many I've known," he said, while squeezing her to show she was one of the brave ones in his eyes. 

"How did someone like Bitra --" Roy asked and bit it off. It didn't matter anymore.

Slade looked out the window, ignoring, for the moment, Roy's words. "It's almost full dark. We need to go."

"Go?" Dinah asked him softly, then she closed her eyes. There was only one place, and one thing, Slade _could_ mean. "Of course." 

Roy stood slowly, not letting go of Dick's hand -- not that Dick would have let him let go. "Yeah... this is going to be hard."

They walked out the doors, each pair holding on, and used the single lights left burning in windows, the starlight, and the light from the small moon Timor to make their way to the Bonfire Square. That square had so often been the sight of their festivities, but tonight...

Tarvi was standing motionless beside a massive pyramid of brush and fern, and though he'd always been thin to Dick's eyes he was a rail tonight, thin as the branches of the pile. He was waiting for the thin trails of people to end, and when no more had come for long moments, he lit a brand in his hand, and raised it high, casting his features cast in grief and tracked with tears in sharp relief.

He turned, searching the crowd as if his gaze fixed all of them in turn, and then he began to speak, his voice hoarse as he cried out to the crowd. "From now on, I am no longer Tarvi, or Andiyar. I am Telgar, so that her name is spoken every day, so that she is remembered by everyone for giving _us_ her life! As will our children bear that name. Ram Telgar, Ben Telgar, Dena Telgar, and Cara Telgar, who will never know her mother." His lungs filled with breath, and he yelled. " _What is my name?_ "

Slade, Dinah, Dick, Roy, Sean, and Sorka roared back with the crowd. "TELGAR!"

***

Dinah grimaced and wondered for about the fifteenth time that day why she had come back to Landing to run her latest tests. Use of a computer was not _that_ necessary that she should have to put up with Ted Tubberman throwing his weight around, interfering here and there, and generally being disagreeable. If she'd known he was going to be there, she would have just used the smaller system she had at home, and just accepted the delays. Dinah was trying to unlock why the native plants were able to survive, so she could possibly save the immigrant varieties they had brought. And she could _not_ do that if the only other true botanist was allowing his grief-madness to distract everyone from what needed to be done. What he thought he was doing, wasting everything that girl had wanted...

Almost as if responding to her irritation, Pol Nietro walked through the doors and headed straight towards Ted. "Ted, we need to talk." 

//Oh thank the stars, finally.// Dinah, despite being the only other remaining fully trained, specialized botanist, did not have the authority to really do anything about Ted, and she respected and understood his grief too much to do more than just try and work around him. But Pol... Pol was pretty much in charge of all the bio labs now.

Ted stuck his jaw out, his spine straightening as he tried to bluster. "What about, Pol?"

"Come on outside, Ted. Dinah's working."

"If you have something to say to me, you can say it here." 

"Fine, Ted," Pol said, voice grim as he looked straight at Ted. "Grab your stuff, and get out of the labs."

Dinah kept working. She had learned on the satellite, so cramped for space, how to not show that she could see or hear, no matter what was going on around her. She kept working on cataloguing the repetitive trait of slender rhizomes that went deep, and were easily burned free of the foliage above the soil.

"You can't force me out of the labs, Nietro, you don't have the --" 

"I have the seniority, Ted. And I have the position. You've been harassing Wind Blossom, Bay, and probably Dinah. I'm not going to say it again. Get out, Ted."

The small woman did glance up as Ted got the point, just to see for herself as he exited. Maybe now, she could possibly get somewhere with the problem of how to save the more fragile Earth and Centauri plants.

Pol walked with him as he left, then came back in. "How're you doing, Dinah? Any luck?"

Dinah blinked, looked up at him, and nodded. "For some reason, all the low-growth plant life is fond of making their stems very narrow, very easy to cut off. My working hypothesis is currently that if the greenery is sheared off, the Threads cannot burrow down fast enough to reach the heart of the plant. Thread passes, and it sends up greenery as fast as possible to nourish itself, repeat ad infinitum through a cycle of that stuff."

"I'd say it has plenty of reason, then," Pol agreed. "Our little friends evolved teleportation, there isn't a lot of large fauna that isn't either winged or burrowing, and the plant-life adapted to have fine stems and deep roots... Wonderful planet we have, even with the dangers, isn't it?"

"It is, Pol... and dammit, we can make ourselves fit inside its life cycle!" she said fervently, her eyes sparking dangerously bright. 

Pol nodded, quick and sure. "We can, Dinah. We will.. and you and Slade gave us one hell of a gift, as far as survival goes, when you thought up those shutters. I don't know if anyone else would have even tried to cover as much ground as we're going to need."

"Everyone brings something from their backgrounds," she demurred. "Covering enough fields to support the population now is very doable, but I pray those experiments turn out to be viable, because otherwise..." She let herself trail off, fairly sure Pol knew what she was thinking. Population control was not something she wanted to live under again, even if she and Slade never got comfortable enough with the idea to contribute to the expansion of the colony. She certainly wasn't comfortable with the idea yet, and if they... well. No sense in worrying over it yet. 

"They're looking healthy, Dinah, from everything we can observe," Pol did his best to reassure her, knowing she would keep up with him as he changed the subject. They couldn't run any actual tests on the eggs while they were within the incubator, they could only observe. With the lower tech level they had brought with them, there was no way to do testing that minute without causing damage to them. Any of their tools had too much risk attached.

Dinah nodded, and returned to her with her ever-present dogged determination.

****

Dick's head snapped up at the sound of running feet as the Admiral, the Governor, and three men he vaguely recognized from Admin came quite literally racing across the sleds' parking grid towards where he and Fulmar were working together on one of the sleds. That was almost unheard of -- "Fulmar, trouble!"

The senior mechanic had barely enough time to pull his head out from the sled's guts before the Admiral was barking orders in his direction. And if Dick had had any doubt that something had gone seriously wrong, it didn't last past the expression on Benden's face.

Governor Boll gave Dick a long look, and tried to place if the man's guardian was in Landing. "Grayson, can you ask Wilson to be on hand... we may have need of a man with that much experience policing civilians, when we get back." 

"Yes, ma'am. Report to Admin?" he asked as he listened to the Admiral commandeer Vic and one of their other largest techs into the augmented sled Kenjo had left them.

"Yes," Boll agreed. Fulmar took his place behind the sled's controls, and the Governor took the last place available in the sled. Once they had taken off, Dick called for Chakano, scrawled out a fast note, and looked his bronze square in the eye. "To Slade, Chaka. To Slade."

The fire lizard didn't make much more than one cheep and launched, blinking out to go find Slade by homing in on Major. The bronzes met and conferred, before Chakano would allow Slade to take the note.

Slade unfolded the note and shook his head, thankful he was in Landing for the next couple of days as he and some of the farmers talked over what order they would put the shutters up on stakes in. "I have to leave, I'm needed in Admin," he told the table -- thankful to be able to get away from their arguing for at least a little while. "I'll be back when I can."

There were grumbles, but Slade was a hard worker, and that was one thing the few agronomists still trying to work the land respected.

Slade took off at a fast jog once he was out of the building, and Dick met him before he reached the Admin door.

"Trouble," his dark-haired son said, "and I don't mean the brown. Benden and Boll just took a crew of muscle in Kenjo's sled, headed towards Oslo Landing. I have no idea why, yet, but the Governor asked for you to be waiting when they get back."

Slade nodded slowly. "We'll find out soon enough, I'm sure. Let Dinah know I'll likely be late tonight? I can't think why I'd be needed unless it's for my former profession."

"She said 'someone with that much experience policing civilians'," Dick nodded. "I have to get back, but..." He'd learned years ago that one took word like that personally, rather than trust it to paper or comm lines. This planet was very trusting, and normally he loved it, but right now... a little paranoia sounded like a really good thing.

"You've got long legs," Slade told him, to try and make light of the fact he could feel every hair on the back of his neck rising.

Dick managed a quiet laugh as he nodded. "See you tonight." He leaned enough to catch Slade's shoulder a moment, then called Chakano to his shoulder again to head back towards the sleds.

Major took wing, watching the horizon for his human friend, while Slade kept his emotions under short leash and waited. Major too frequently communicated them to Hope, and Dinah was highly receptive to her little friend's emotional state. It wasn't that long before Major told him that a sled was coming in. Then the bronze made a startled noise, because the sled was not going to land at the usual pad, but was coming towards the Admin building, much deeper into the press of buildings than usual.

Slade grunted at that information. Whatever had happened had to be real, deep trouble for the colony. He shifted to a militant stance without truly noting it, on guard for whatever was threatening the colony this time, as obviously it was trouble with a human face. He wasn't going to have to wait long for the answer as the sled landed a couple of meters in front of him. Vic Stone was the first one out of the sled, followed by a very belligerent Ted Tubberman and three men that were obviously there as guards as well.

Vic moved towards him quickly, letting the other three bring Tubberman along. "Slade," Vic called with relief obvious in his face. "Glad you're here. We're supposed to call Joel, but I'll be glad to hand Tubberman off to you."

"I was summoned by Boll," Slade agreed. He looked at Ted Tubberman, ice in his veins as he called up every ounce of intimidation he had, glaring at the man that had given his partner nothing but trouble of late. Tubberman glared back at him, though apprehension was obvious in his posture.

"We're supposed to use the Admiral's office to keep him until they can get back," Vic added, and the group headed that way. Once they'd managed to get Tubberman into the room, Vic stepped outside with Slade for a minute. "Dad forced his sled down a ways from Oslo. That one was bragging about doing "what needed to be done to save this colony from annihilation." Wish I knew what the hell he meant, but the Admiral was steamed."

Slade looked sharply at Vic. "Make sure not to repeat that, Vic. One time that freedom of speech can do more harm than good is telling only part of a tale." He did try to process it, to try and figure out what could have been done. He really didn't like what he was thinking of, and was only able to dismiss what came to him because Tubberman, by all accounts, was rather deficient on the technical side of things.

"Yes sir," Vic nodded, taking the warning to heart. "Dad took the Admiral and Boll on to Oslo Landing. Don't know how long they'll be." The last of the information he had given up, Vic went to call Joel Lililenkamp and get him there, while the rest of the techs headed back to the last of their shifts.

The stocky quartermaster arrived in short order, and pulled up with long look at Slade, fury still obvious in his expression. "Wilson. Wish this was better circumstances. Tubberman," he practically spit the name, "in there?"

"And not going a damn place." Slade had gone in just long enough to make sure Tubberman could neither escape, nor panic and find anything useful enough to kill himself... if he had the guts. Whatever had happened, Slade intended to make sure the man answered for it according to due process, rather than allowing him to take the fast way out.

"Come in and make sure I don't deck the slime-producing maggot, will you?" Joel asked before he pushed the door open. Slade followed him in rapidly. If Joel was that moved to temper, there could not be a good outcome.

****

Slade moved fairly quickly, but with a tight coil of energy throughout his body, as he crossed Landing over to Irish Square later that night. He made it inside and saw that everyone had already eaten and his meal was waiting on one of the warming plates. He wasn't sure he had the stomach for it, but the scent hitting his nose whetted his appetite. Dinah had to have cooked; she had a deft touch for knowing just how to suit his moods with the right meals. It was one more part of their partnership, no, their marriage now, something he still wasn't used to. That night after Tar -- Telgar had made his declaration, she had curled into his arms and slowly asked him if they could go see Cherry Duff, the local magistrate. Now, with the worms in the apples so obvious, he was actually more relieved to have that solid affirmation of what they were for each other.

Major nuzzled at him worriedly, and he heard the sound of one of them rising in the living area to come towards him. With all six of them in the house, things were occasionally cramped, but there was room enough. Dinah came through into the kitchen and stopped in the doorway, while Hope launched off her shoulder to join Major on his. The little gold nuzzled her mate, then his cheek, and he ran his fingers lightly down her back.

"Are you alright, love?" Dinah asked quietly.

"Let me eat before I talk." Slade looked at her with warmth as he spoke. "Else I won't eat, and that would be an insult to you."

"All right," she said as she moved over to kiss his other cheek gently, settling quietly nearby while he ate. It wasn't long before there was another dark head in the doorway, but Dick took one long look and vanished back into the living room.

Slade ate the meal in easy silence, trying to phrase exactly what needed to be said to the others as clearly as he could in his head. When he finished eating, he set his dishes into the sink, then wrapped his arm around Dinah's shoulder to go into the living room with the others. He had a nod for Sean, a smile at Sorka, and shoulder squeezes for both boys. A quick word to Major and Hope had them take off to their corner nook as he settled.

"How bad is it?" Dick asked, blue eyes dark. "Vic and Fulmar both looked pretty worried when they came back."

"They managed to find the homing capsule in Joel's sheds, and send it off."

Dick tensed instantly, shaking his head, but he stayed silent as Slade continued. "By they, I mean Ted Tubberman and Stev Kimmer, possibly others. Though only Ted was caught and he's claiming he did it on his own." Slade took a moment and let that sink in.

Even Sean rolled his eyes at that, while Roy looked as disdainful as he possibly could. Tubberman's inability to handle mechanics was legendary. Slade ignored the silent commentary and continued. "The launch was recorded as being on the proper course for system breakaway, unless it hits the debris of the _Mariposa_ or that crap up there is in its path as badly as it has been for the probes."

Dick and Sean managed to somehow spit the same bit of Roma profanity even as Roy cursed in his first tongue and Dinah dropped into spacer argot for several choice phrases that came near making him wince. Sorka waited the four of them out, then looked at Slade. "How much chance do we have of that actually being true?" 

"With our frakking luck, Sorka? Don't be daft. Real question is if the damn FSP'd acknowledge a capsule sent rogue, isn't it?"

Slade nodded at Sean, and shrugged as he answered Sorka. "Good strong chance it won't make it. Another, even stronger chance it will be ignored. Not to mention... it'd take forever for them to decide, and then to come here. So, wouldn't be useful to us if they did come, any way you look at it."

"At least a twenty-year turnaround, wouldn't it be?" Dick slipped in. "By that point, we're going to _have_ this under control, one way or another. What the hell good does he think it's going to do?"

"The man has not thought rationally since First Fall!" Dinah exploded. "Yes, grieve, man, but don't be counterproductive to everything being done to actually fight what took your daughter from you! I mean, he still at least has his wife and his son!" //Far more than I had left...//

Slade tightened his arms around his new wife, hearing exactly what she wasn't saying, and wishing, deep down, that he and Joel had lost control enough to at least deck the fatherless good-for-nothing.

Roy left Dick's side to come and take her hands, crouching next to their seat. "He's a damned idiot, Di, we know it. And Slade's right, there's a strong chance they'll just ignore it."

"They don't, we bury ourselves in the Barrier Range, guys," Sean said again. "I'm not living under FSP rule again." 

"Like they'd take us, with what they'd have to invest to get out here?" Dick asked. "We all know they wanted rid of us just as much as we wanted gone."

"The Barrier range works for me," Sorka said. "I'm sure Da would think the same." 

"If they come, we tell them to shove it up their reactors," Dinah growled. She pressed into Slade. "What are they going to do to him, and Stev?"

"Actually, we want Stev watched, since we can't prove it. Think you and Sorka over there can put the lizards on him? As for Tubberman? Duff and Cabot and the rest hashed it out, and they're going to shun him."

Dick, Roy, and Sean looked at each other with sudden darkness in their eyes. Each of them knew just what shunning could do to someone, it was part of the cultures they'd been born in, and if Sean hadn't been Porrig's son, it was something he might have faced after they'd reached Pern. Dick spoke for all three of them a moment later. "Wish they'd do worse, but that'll work better than near anything else on that blowhard of a windbag."

"Don't insult a good set of pipes," Sorka protested, but she nodded at Slade. "We can do that. He ignores them so completely, after all."

"Good," Slade said. He then looked at the boys, shaking his head. "Charter. Autonomy limits the types of punishments."

"I know, Slade, I know. And I know we signed to it, too."

Slade nodded then, sure they understood. "Speaking of autonomy... it's being kicked around again as a reason those eggs had better hatch out right. People are not happy to be centralized."

"Those complaints are everywhere," Sean agreed. "All of Da's folk aren't happy being stuck in the caves, and I hear the same thing all through Landing. It's getting worse with every set of shutters you put up, too."

Slade made a noise, but Dinah was the one to answer that. "The shutters are not the only answer. We're going to have plants that won't adapt to it. We're going to have problems controlling the growth to not overuse the fields we can cover... but there should be a second base, at the very least, with supplies stored up at Thread-proofed claims as well."

Sorka sighed, red hair falling around her face as she shook her head. "Making people understand that is going to be hard, with how much everyone wanted their autonomy. But you're right. We've got to get out of Landing anyway, it was never built for this."

"None too keen on having a volcano or three so close when so many are erupting out at sea. Illyria blew again," Slade said. "Some were panicking that the ash was Thread char."

"Idiots," Dinah said with a snort.

"Now, Di -- oh, hell, you're right," Roy shook his own head, giving up on trying to defend that foolishness. "But yeah, having that old bastard's name on the peak doesn't help any, either." 

"Everywhere down here's seismically active to one degree or another," Dick put his nose in. "I mean, the Barrier Range isn't prone to quakes, but it's still compressing and going up. ...Not that it matters what we think, but if I were betting, I'd say they'll push to move up North before too long." The older, more stable, but much cooler continent had already been drawing the hardiest of their settlers; at least before the Thread came.

Slade considered it. "That might be best... for those who can't hack it, at least. We're going to need some strong backs and stronger minds though... the growing season up there is too short, and we've already started Thread-proofing fields here."

"But if the helpless were out of the way..." Sean said, considering it, then jumped and glared at Sorka for the hit she'd lodged against his ribs. "You know what I mean, woman! Get the techs out of our hair and let us make the place fit for living right!"

"You are _impossible_ , Sean Connell," Sorka glared at him, her eyes sharp, but she nodded. "I'll give you that, though."

"He does have a point, even if a little undiplomatic in it." Slade began wondering who was likely willing to stay, if it came to that, to produce the foods and medicinals they would need planetwide, while new homes were built and fields made up north.

"I for one won't leave my lands," Dinah said firmly. "The north's too cold for a lot of my specialties."

"Like anyone could doubt that?" Slade shook his head at his wife. "All right. To bed, all of us. Long day tomorrow."

"Bed does sound good," Roy said with a suggestive stretch along Dick's body. Sean kept the eye-roll to himself, taking Sorka's arm by the elbow to lead her to their room, while Dinah stood and waited for Slade to join her.

****

Their conversations about volcanoes took on an eerie prescience when just as the notices of Ted Tubberman's crime and punishment went out, Pern decided to do a little dance right under Landing. It was the second time they'd felt one in the initial colony site, but the first had been way back at the original gathering to celebrate all of them being landed on the planet.

Roy came through the door for lunch still growling under his breath quietly, and had nearly wrapped his arms around Dick from behind him before Slade's low "Roy" stopped him. After he froze, he saw the tape wrapped around Dick's lower ribs and his own irritation fled his mind, "What happened, Robbie?"

"Flipping quake kicked one of the supports and the motor we were working on slid a little," Dick growled.

"Nothing broken, but he's black and blue already," Slade said.

"Now I'm even more glad the struts on the incubator held, but damn a little warning woulda been nice," Roy said, carefully draping his arms around Dick's shoulders.

"The eggs are okay?" Slade asked, looking at the redhead with concern blatant in his eye. So many tentative plans hinged on that project. Sleds were just not going to be enough, and the shutters did no good if they could not keep the threat out of the people and livestock via some kind of aerial defense.

"Yeah, we think so. Pol and Bay swear they didn't even ripple, but none of the bio labs knew before it hit -- surgery gets first call." He shrugged, unable to argue with the good sense of that, but still...

Dick winced, "Man. I think we all oughta be grateful Sorka and Sean're supposed to be doing vaccinations on some of the stock today, or we'd be hearing all three of your redheaded tempers going off."

Roy laughed at him because it was true, and Slade gave a small smile. "Seems Dinah took off right at the best time to avoid the possibility," he said wryly, but he wasn't really happy his wife had gone back to their stake with a few of the agronomy students to start teaching them her tricks with native plants.

"She always does have good timing," Dick nodded, and tipped his head back against Roy's arms, looking up at him. "Too bad you have to go back to work, Fulmar doesn't want me in the shop."

"We're not really doing much but final tests before the move," Roy insinuated. "I'm sure Pol'd give me the afternoon..."

Slade wanted to chuckle at them, but he decided leaving might just be the best gift he could give his precocious boys. "I do have work to do, as it seems the Admiral has found one more set of shoulders to switch burdens to... Tillek's a good man, though, and he's got ideas to run with."

"The _Bahrain_ 's captain? Sorka had a lot of good to say about him a couple of times, and Joel likes him, too. Bet he hates giving up his boat, though." Dick vividly remembered the huge mass of the _Southern Cross_ in the freight shipped down from the _Bahrain_ 's cargo hold.

"So I hear. Still, anyone that gets things moving and can keep the hecklers in check is welcome by me," Slade said, before he tipped his head at both and moved out.

Dick watched him leave for a moment, then looked up at Roy, "Go call Pol, if you're going to."

Roy nodded with a lazy smile, and went to wheedle out of work. Pol certainly didn't begrudge the younger man time away, given how hard Roy worked, and there really wasn't much but watching the displays for now. A few moments later, and Roy was guiding Dick to bed, to be fussed over and taken care of properly.

****

Because of Fulmar's unwillingness to let him in the shop until his ribs weren't screaming every time he breathed, Dick had gone along with his best friends to help -- or at least watch -- the moving of the eggs from their incubator to the specially constructed Hatching Grounds.

Roy was excited, and the other pair of redheads were just as bad. Even Sean had an expectant air to him as the twenty-nine eggs were carefully placed, shifted, and settled in the well-warmed sands.

The more they fussed, though, the more Sean's expectant air turned towards frustration, and Dick heard him muttering, "So much excitement's bad for the eggs," under his breath at the scientists who wouldn't leave well enough alone. Despite how they tried, none of the firelizards would settle down, flittering all around, but at least they were well up above the eggs. Not even Hope, who'd tagged along because of how excited Roy was, had been that bold. It looked like the entire Landing population of the little friends was there, though, up in the rafters and everywhere else.

"I think they might be happy now," Roy called softly to Sean when things began to ease off, and the vet techs were told that was the end of the transfer.

"Better be. This could've been done with half the fuss. And Sorka and I've got surgery in about ten minutes."

"Oh, stop fuss _ing_ ," Sorka told him, shaking her head with a curve to her lips that Dick couldn't recall ever seeing before. She'd been acting a little odd the last few days, even better able to anticipate and understand the firelizards' sends than usual, and... he wasn't sure what else it was. "Mind company walking over?" he asked. "I'm about to go space-nuts I'm so bored."

"Maybe if we walk with, Hope will get the hint from the sheds that maybe she should go home," Roy joked, watching the bossy little queen with a small fair of tame and wild fire lizards.

"I don't mind one bit," Sean said, watching that little smile of Sorka's with puzzlement.

Dick grinned at that, and started to head towards the vet area, listening to Sean and Sorka's comments about the likelihood of Lemos and Nabol managing to catch still-capsuled Thread in the upper atmosphere without much to say about it. He didn't think they'd gotten anywhere near enough time to work the detritus of eight years out of the abandoned shuttle they were going to use, but the Admiral hadn't asked him.

Sean and Sorka were bantering, playful talk between them as they walked, and Roy was quietly enjoying the day at Dick's side, when they snapped to a halt because Sean did, watching as he grabbed Sorka tight enough to draw her shipsuit tight. "Jays, Sorka, when were you going to tell me?"

"It's only just been confirmed, Sean!" Sorka snapped, and Dick stared, looking at the way her clothes were pulled against her body... //She's...// " _Sorka_...."

"Wow, we're having a baby!" Roy blurted out, happy to see that curve in the line of her body, and then he flushed at Sean's sharp look his way. "Okay, so it's you two, but..."

"No, you're right. My babe, mine and Sorka's, but two finer god parents I couldn't ask for than you two," Sean admitted. "But Sorka Hanrahan, we're going straight to Cherry Duff's after this surgery, or my name's not Sean Connell! Babe has to have a proper two-parent name!"

Dick didn't even try to hide the laugh as he listened to Sean, looking over at Sorka, who had her hands planted on her hips as she looked up at her lover. "Sorka... does anyone know?"

"Of course not, you pack of lunatics, why would I tell anyone else before I'd told Sean?" she glared over at him. "And as for you, Sean..." all of the irritation went out of her voice on her next, soft word, " _yes_. I'll marry you."

"Good. Right now, though, we're going to be late!" Sean swallowed all his joy and the resolution to focus on now... but his step was lighter in some ways, and his shoulders squared with resolve.

Dick watched the two of them break into a run across the last several meters, and turned to look at Roy. ""We're having a baby"?" He mimicked Roy's tone as precisely as he could. "Were you trying to get Sean to deck you one?"

Roy shrugged carelessly. "Sorry, 'mano... but a baby!!!"

"Yeah.. I know." Dick was grinning as he said it. "Now start thinking about how we tell Slade and Dinah."

***

Dick cursed under his breath as the sleds reached the projected location of the Threadfall, straining his eyes to see if he could spot the silvery stuff that should have been right on top of them... Thank god it was Drake's turn to have the highest elevation this flight. He more than half wished Roy was with him, where the hell was -- Chakano chirped on his shoulder, straining his head north. His winged friend would probably vanish to the ground crews before long, but for now, he was with him in the sled. 

"Drake, look north!" he called over the squad band. "It's north, at least... damn, I can't tell."

"Zi'll chart it, Grayson. Right now -- good, Force is on getting us extra help and groundcrew. That's on track for Bordeaux, everybody. Hit it and let's get north now, stay together."

//And Calusa. Damn, how are we going to handle _that_?// Dick didn't say a word, though, just took the sled's acceleration to as close to max as Drake was putting his, keeping their squad together as they raced to deal with the latest this damn stuff had thrown at them. He spared a moment to be glad it was Theo that had called it in, she had a no-nonsense mind to her.

He lost himself in flying as smart as he could, in keeping his gunner right on target for the falling Thread, and his focus narrowed to nothing but the sky in front of him and the warning hum of the proximity sensors when the rest of the squad came a shade too close.

Halfway through the Fall, Drake's voice cut through his concentration. "We have to swerve around the Tubberman stake, all. Here's your course -- don't argue with me!! It's not my call!" he snapped before he let go of the mike.

//...apparently, like that. Oh, Drake's pissed.// He didn't like the idea of leaving Thread falling anywhere, either, and he wanted to hear the legal justification for putting Mary and the kids in danger later. But for right now, they had Fall to fly. Everything else had to wait until it was over.

***

Well after the Fall was over, Dick was in the main kitchen with the rest of his squad and saw Ned Tubberman come running in. He hadn't ever talked to the young man much, but in a population as small as theirs, it was hard not to know everyone, and Ned had taken his father's disloyalty harder than he really should. It wasn't his fault, after all. Ned came up beside Drake and pulled at his sleeve, trying to drag the squad leader to his feet, voice raising as he pleaded with him. "You saw it. I know you did. Come on, Drake, you've got to come tell them!"

The answer of 'tell them what?' was obvious on his lead's face even before Drake spoke. "Ned, we don't even know what we really saw," Drake temporized, rubbing a hand over his face.

"Yes you do. Come on, Drake..."

Dick listened intently even as Ned kept trying to drag Drake out of the room,"I didn't see anything!... No... I don't believe what I saw. I can't. Green... but your father'd stopped you fla --" the conversation trailed off as the pair left, nearly leaving Dick with a mystery that would have eaten at him for days.

Ned paused outside the door as faces and connections clicked, though, turning back inside to look at Dick. "Grayson... you're tied to Lance, right?" He looked at Drake then, out in the hall. "Tell him, so Lance can verify or deny!"

Dick left his mostly-finished plate to join them outside the cafeteria, not wanting to draw any more attention to whatever the heck was going on than Ned already had."Slow down; what's going on?"

Drake shook his head, shrugging a shoulder puzzledly. "Tubberman's still got grass on his stake."

Ned nodded quickly, explaining. "He stopped me and mom from flaming it, and the grass on one patch is still green and thick and there!"

Dick cocked his head, thinking. "Real grass that we brought with us, or one of the hybrids?"

Ned looked at Drake, then back at Dick when the senior shrugged. "I'm not sure."

"Either way... The possibility..." Dick shook his head, stunned, as they started heading for Admin. "Dinah hasn't found anything like that, but they won't breach stake autonomy to send her in there over your father's wishes, Ned."

Those words made Ned look positively ready to rant, before he just deflated, and slumped his shoulders in defeat. "He won't request to be heard, either, or let someone else in."

Dick thought about it for a second. "...your mom has hold on that land too, though. Would she ask?"

Ned looked up and then shook his head. "She doesn't go against dad. But maybe I can convince one of them."

Dick could think of a few only-vaguely-legal ways to get answers out from this, but all of them would have put Ned in one hell of a nasty position. "...I'm sorry, Ned. I know Dinah's going to want so damned bad to know how he did it, but..."

"I'll try. I promise, I'll try. Because that... That could mean so much for all Pern!" Ned blurted out fervently.

"Yeah. It would. Even just the surety of grass for the horses and cattle that we wouldn't have to put shutters over... Maybe I'm wrong about Admin. Maybe they'll decide the need's too great. Give them a shot, Ned. It can't hurt to try."

"I will!" He looked to Drake, who nodded, pledging at least his testimony.

Dick left both of them to go to that and went to see if his plate was still there, and help with the cleanup if it wasn't.

***

Dinah glanced up as Dick got in, freshly showered from her own ground crew duty, and smiled at him. "Good flying!"

"Thanks, Dinah," Dick replied with a smile, then found himself a perch next to her. Sean and Sorka were on vet duty this shift, and Roy either wasn't back yet or had decided to stay over with them. "...there's going to be one heck of an ethical quandary in Admin tonight. Damn am I glad not to be part of it."

"Oh?" She reached over and gave him a light squeeze on his hand, reminding herself he was really still there, like Roy and Slade. For a woman who had an aversion to physical contact, her family was something she needed to touch to be sure of, a trait she had not even really noticed in herself.

Dick sighed and wrapped his fingers around her hand. "It's Tubberman. Somehow he's made some kind of breakthrough down there, and Ned and Drake saw it. So... I don't know which side of the law they're going to come down on, but after making us avoid his place..."

"They what?" Dinah's voice went cool and quiet. "They endangered the whole of Pern for the sake of shunning one man who went mad with grief?"

"Oh, good. It's not just me and Drake that're pissed off at that," Dick said with relief, as Hope came to curl around Dinah's shoulders, her eyes whirling towards dark orange.

"The xenobiologists still haven't solved the issue of shells to Thread ratio, leaving us with an un-found explanation of the stuff's cycle of life, we have spots of land that are still barren from at least the previous cycle of this, and they were willing to let it fall unchecked on a stake as large as Calusa?" Dinah's fury was a quiet thing apparently, as her voice never rose even as she ticked off every point of the colony leaders' stupidity. " _And_ he's made some breakthrough that might help us all, but they're too concerned about the shunning to do anything?!"

Dick slowly slid his hand up her arm to cup behind her elbow, looking into her furious blue eyes with a shiver. He'd never actually seen her truly angry, and it wasn't something he really wanted to see again. "Di, I agree with you. And I think Drake had a screaming argument with them in the middle of Fall. But yeah, that's pretty much it."

She took a breath and let him bring her fury down, let him be the calming presence for her, before she stood up to go put on her work clothes. If this was being debated at Admin, she was going to be there, to demand access to whatever Ted Tubberman had found, for the good of them all.

***

When the door opened and let the small figure in, Slade could see instantly that Dinah was not happy. He'd gotten some of the story from Dick earlier, before the young man passed out on Roy, but now... she practically radiated her fury.

He wound up having to hold her as she flung herself into his arms, a spirit of defeat too strong in her after what she'd heard at that long meeting. "They refused. I can't go get samples, I can't contact him... He has to repent his actions like we're some forsaken religious barbaric civilization or something! Something that could be so important to all of us...."

He wrapped his arms around her a little more closely, shaking his head. "...stupid of them. After that idiocy of blocking the flight from protecting the rest of his stake -- like he doesn't have enough farmland for serious burrows to have started?"

She nodded, clutching hard at his arms and holding on. "I just hope --" She cut herself off, looking up at him with her jaw set in the determined line he so loved. "If he found a way, I'll find one. I have to."

"I know you will, Dinah. We're already making huge strides, just with what you've already found."

She pressed close, and added a little nuzzle that told him she was more than ready for bed, for him to hold her all night, and for this day to be over. He knew, as she did, that come the morning, she'd be back to work full-tilt, trying to find what Ted had to make the land defend itself.

***

Slade had been relatively restless lately. Despite every attempt to put the stress aside like a good soldier usually could, he had spent the night before without sleep. Rather than just waste the time, he had taken it on himself to sketch out the designs of potential housing arrangements for the dragons -- if they truly hatched -- and for their riders, based off the notes Roy had from helping on the project.

Since it would do no good unless green lighted by Admin, as it would use some resources targeted for other projects, he decided to head over and see if the Governor was in. Dealing with her for practicalities was often easier than trying to go through the Admiral.

Part of the restlessness, he knew, was the franticly impatient wait for all the dragon eggs to hatch out. Their fire lizards had driven Dinah to distraction, along with the wilds that still checked on her, about the idea of the eggs being nearly ready. Late this afternoon, Roy had finally caught on that was what the humming was about, and went to pull Dick off the flight line for their place on the sands. They were the right age, had already bonded to fire lizards, and had high empathy ratings, for un-augmented humans, making them as suitable as Sorka and Sean for the chance. Both of the boys had argued against the age cap, pointing out Dinah's intense rapport with the wild ones that she never impressed, but Pol and Bay insisted the design notes called for younger riders.

He reached the governor's office, and her young aide shook her head as soon as he came in the door. "The Governor's at the hatching site, if you were looking for her directly..."

"Thank you, miss." Slade nodded with a polite smile and headed out that way, thinking it would be nice to see the kids anyway and find out how many eggs had cracked.

As he reached the hatching site, Dick waved at him from the hot sands, standing between Sorka and Roy.

The hum of the firelizards crooning vibrated against his chest and in his eardrums -- //nine-hundred-something harmony...// -- as he came over to them. There were obvious gaps in the double-ring of the eggs, and far over to his right... Slade took in the sight of five of the male colors, all dark bronze and brown, with one lone, shining gold beside them. Some eggs rocked vigorously, while others barely moved, drawing comments from the xenobiologists.

"Looks like they maybe, finally, stopped bolting that meat?" Roy said, looking over at the six pairs of hatchlings-and-riders.

"Maybe," Sean said, shrugging a shoulder. "Wind Blossom looks just as sour as ever, over there," he added, his usual opinion of Kitti Ping's granddaughter on display.

Dick glanced at Slade, "What brought you? Roy barely let me see the shuttle off safe before he was dragging me in here."

Slade shook his head. "Guess it's too hard to sleep with you four kids underfoot," the big man teased. "I brought housing plans over to show the Governor, for all of the dragons that hatch." He looked over at the beasts, all gangly looking and hardly as graceful as Major had been.

Dick cocked his head, leaning to see if he could get a look at the plans.

Sorka smiled over at Slade, her hand on Sean's arm. "At least someone's thinking about where to put them once they get too big to be inside -- somehow, I think that got overlooked, even by us that should have known better."

"Call it a hazard of my profession, Sorka." Slade unrolled the designs, which borrowed heavily from the idea of the shutters, given how much the little lizards loved to sun. The bigger ones were just as likely to want the sunlight on them. "Figured Boll might be reasonably interested."

Dick nodded, and ran his fingers over part of the design as the four of them talked it over for a few more minutes, before Slade headed towards where the governor was standing -- with the admiral, possibly unfortunately. She looked up at him with a quick, curious tilt of her head. "Good afternoon, Slade. How are your boys doing with this?"

"Doing just fine. They've got the patience of saints." That it came from being able to freeze and remain perfectly still through an attack by enemies was not something he needed to say to either of them. "I brought some designs for potential living quarters for the hatchlings and their riders."

"Shall we step back over to somewhere you can spread them out, then?"

"If you don't mind, Governor." If the Admiral followed, so be it. It had been the Admiral's inability to bend the military idea of discipline to a civilian situation that led to the miscall in Tubberman's case, he thought. Benden, however, seemed more interested in the conversation between Pol and Wind Blossom -- and the the hatching of another gold. Boll willingly followed him over to look at the plans -- and then approved them almost wholeheartedly.

"It wouldn't require much change, other than in size, than the prefab specs we created for the farm shutters... privacy'll be a little less than they'd have in houses, but with the nature of the fire lizards, I think that's going to be something we need to desensitize the riders to anyway," Slade explained as they walked.

The governor cocked her head to the side, clearly not understanding what he meant.

"Oh that's right... I'm sorry ma'am. I forget you don't have one of the fire lizards." He smiled with that openness so many of the fire lizards' partners had, the one that defied all the tragedy of their lives. "Our little friends break down a number of conventions on privacy, given how open their emotional sharing is. They... don't much care for barriers."

"Oh... my. Perhaps it's no wonder I have never impressed one."

Slade smiled softly, as he always did when he thought of just how he had come to have a wife. "Ma'am, you were lucky enough to find a match without being pushed. Some of us needed it."

That made her nearly flush and smile up at him. "Thank you." She looked back at the slightly rocking eggs, and sighed softly. "There are probably other things I should be doing -- like taking these plans of yours to where they'll do some good."

"It'll keep, Governor," Slade said diplomatically. "They won't grow up overnight, no matter how much some will wish it." He turned back to the sands. "They are our future."

"True," she said quietly, and headed back towards her administrative partner.

The heat wore on them through the evening, and food and drink were brought for both the candidates and the members of their families that had come to watch. He wasn't surprised when slim arms wrapped around his waist late in the evening, just as the fast tropic dusk was hitting.

He shifted, drawing Dinah around into his lap. Major and Hope both dropped into hers once she was settled, twining possessively around one another while still managing to keep up the greeting-croon. She smiled at them, then at her husband, before she looked at the pairs of bonded dragons and riders with something akin to true awe.

She'd been settled in his lap only a few moments when three new shells broke -- brown and two golds -- and a sudden flurry of activity and loud creeling complaints of hunger disturbed the human quiet. Slade looked over as one of the newly-impressed announced the name of their hatchling, surprised.

"You weren't here," Dick said quietly, "when Marco impressed, we found out they're true telepathic, not just empathic like the little ones. And apparently they definitely have opinions on their names."

"And on food, " Sorka commented, just as quiet, as the noise continued until the newly-hatched were fed to their satisfaction.

"They are loud critters," Dinah said. "Bad as Hope was, that..." She looked down at her fire lizard fondly. Hope cheeped dismissively, but nuzzled at her hand after a moment.

Slade chuckled, "I had noticed that," he agreed with her about the volume that the new hatchlings had, shaking his head. "So, not only will they be getting empathic information, but someone talking in your head... I think I might pass anyway," he said softly to his wife.

"Huh?" came from where the younger members of their family were draped across a raised pallet next to theirs, Roy's voice, rough with drowsiness... and an odd level of contentment, in Slade's view.

"Easy, my boy-o... back to sleep. Yours hasn't hatched yet," Dinah told him, reaching out to pet his hair gently.

Roy shifted, pushing into her hand. "So sure, Di? Ye'ii, I haven't felt this warm in years..."

Slade considered that, and looked out at the eggs. "Maybe they're too warm? Not hungry enough?" he questioned, getting an idea that it was only hunger that had always pushed the dragonets to hatch.

Sean pushed himself to sit up, at that, then headed across the sands to talk to Pol.

Dinah thought about it for a moment, then reached out to Hope. Using the hair-thin link to her fire lizard, she 'listened' intently for the unhatched eggs, trying to sense if so many of them weren't hatching out because the dragonets weren't feeling the hunger impulse until too late. Hope made a low noise... Then agreement and negation mixed together as the sense that that was possibly what was wrong with some of them mingled with the sense that some of them were... just not-there.

Dinah closed her eyes, briefly, and then rose to go to Pol, right behind Sean. "Hope says they're not all lost yet," she said softly, grieving for the lives that had not made it. "But the ones that are left... we made the sands a little too warm. They aren't noticing the hunger early enough to have the strength to get free."

Bay gasped at that, and her eyes shut as she reached for Mariah... then she nodded as she received the same answer from her gold. "Could we shift them onto pallets, too? Would it help them? Or would it do too much damage?"

"Yes. Pallets so that they're not quite so warm," Sorka said, having followed Dinah over. "And if we could convince our friends here to project the idea of food at them, to stir the hunger," she suggested from her vast experience with the fire lizards thanks to her and Sean's fair. "I think it would help."

Dinah nodded her agreement, reaching up to stroke over Hope's ridges. "Have the potential riders walk around the eggs -- I know their feet will get hot -- but they might find the one calling to them already. Roy's the reason I noticed... he's feeling one already."

Sorka turned to go back to Dick and Roy, tugging both of them to their feet as Sean went across the way to wake some of the others. Once they were up, they started pulling the pallets they'd been laying on over to the eggs, carefully lifting the hardened, heavy shells in pairs up onto them. As the pack of young people started to move the eggs, the fire lizards attached to them swooped down to shoulders and other perches, their high voices raising in an stronger chorus, now.

Dinah felt the wash of relief come over her, as both Hope and the wild ones watching from afar decided that things were better now. She nestled back into Slade's arms, watching their boys with the pair of eggs that had drawn them. Roy had settled against his, talking in low tones as he stroked the shell. It was an image she wished she could have a holopic of, to be honest.

It was only moments before Catherine Radelin-Doyle cried out in ecstasy as the shell cracked and a dainty gold burst from its shell, making all of them hope that more would hatch soon. Time stretched on... and shortly after midnight, the shell under Roy's hand shuddered violently.

Roy came fully alert then, his breath making a hiss as he sucked it in. "That's it... come on, come out. I want to see you..." Roy encouraged, moving away only as much as he needed to so the egg would have room to crack. He felt a sudden surge of panic; what if the dragonet really didn't want him? What if he wasn't the right partner? What if the little hatchling dismissed him, wandered away to someone else?

The egg shuddered again, and then wing-talon tips and nose-tip pushed through the shell.

"Brown... I knew it..." Roy whispered, his doubts fading slowly as the creel of hunger came just behind the widening of the hole around the nose. A shudder of wing and nose and _push_ of front claws and the brown stood free of the shell on the pallet, looking up at him with whirling green loving eyes.

 _I am Brileth..._ whispered into his mind, and Roy found himself completely lost in the gaze, in the feel of someone who would always be with him, someone who would never leave him, never go away and not come back like they had promised to.

Trouble settled on his shoulder, paw on his ear, and cheeped in warning, that the baby dragon was hungry, and that helped shove Roy into motion, grabbing the bucket that had been brought and feeding Brileth his share of fresh meat. "Bri...my own Bri..."

_Yes. I am very hungry... oh. Oh this is good!_

Dinah had awakened fully at the first warning from Hope, and she watched with her back straight, her hands clasped tightly. Only now did she let the tears show, now that Roy had his friend safely hatched.

Dick had been kneeling next to the egg that spoke the strongest to him, but turned around to watch Roy start to feed the brown //Always, with him...// hatchling. He was still close enough to his egg that when it rocked, it actually bumped him, almost throwing him off the pallet with its motion.

"Well hi there," he said with a snort as he barely caught his balance. He twisted around to look at the egg instead of his partner, since it so obviously wanted his attention. Just like Roy had, he shifted back away from the egg enough to let it move and hatch. "Okay... hi, there. Come on... you can do this, it's okay. There's a whole big world out here for us to check out!" Excitement built in him, excitement and intent, though he could feel the hunger pulling under it.

This egg, unlike Roy's, wasn't showing any sign of truly breaking in any one place. As it rocked and jumped, striated marks formed all along the shell until the whole thing looked like a hard boiled egg that had been rolled carefully to break the shell without actually flaking off. Then, with one more solid bang of the wings unfolding and neck lifting, the whole shell seemed to jump free of the bronze dragonet -- who creeled imperiously for food -- and then looked Dick square in the eye. _I am Shareth,_ he announced, _and I am_ very _hungry._

Dick shuddered as he met those red-flecked green eyes, feeling the absolute love and faith, the bond that would never be broken between them from the demanding young bronze hatchling speaking into his mind. "Alright, alright, let's feed you then," he said, feeling that soul-deep bond and the push of need behind it. He turned to reach for one of the cooled baskets of meat placed close by, and started working on feeding his dragon with Chakano making low, delighted cheeps in his ear. The hunger still twisted low in his body, but not like it had with his firelizard... not quite.

Slade shook his own head from where he was standing, watching with no little pride at seeing both his boys reach this goal -- and then another egg began to shake. Not just any, but the one Sean stood so close to. Slade watched as Sean dropped to his knees beside the egg, reaching out with a low moan in his voice to pull the bronze hatchling closer, the moment it broke the shell.

Sorka, quick as ever, broke from her place near one of the other eggs to get a basket of meat into Sean's hands, as Sean looked up at her, a more open look on his face than Slade had ever seen. "His name's Carenath, Sorka, he knows his name!"

Sorka knew Sean would hate to hear it, but she didn't think she'd ever seen him more... masculinely beautiful than in that moment, and her love for him, her thoughts of the future and their coming child, swelled up in her in a tidal wave threatening to overcome her... yet, she realized suddenly, she was needed, needed at the egg that was calling her to it.

She smiled down at him for just a moment, then turned as the shell broke completely, quick and urgent, and the golden female moved towards her. The gold chittered impatiently until they reached each other, and she looked down into those orange-shot green eyes. She fell into the exultation of that moment, and it was almost painfully good as her dragon, her partner, spoke to her. _I am Faranth, Sorka!_

 _Yes, you are,_ Sorka breathed within her mind, and knew, no matter what, the future of their new home had just turned for the better.

On the edge of the sands, Slade held his wife tighter as he watched the four of his kids make the bonds that would, one day, be the difference between mere survival and truly making Pern their own.


End file.
